I’ve recently schemed and built a 2.5 gallon brewing setup which I find advantageous for a number of reasons.

1. I have a bar refrigerator which can hold a pair of 3 gallon better bottles.  The 3 gallon better bottles are fantastic in their square shape which allows optimal use of refrigerators and chest freezers for fermentation chambers.   Better bottle should make every offering in square for this sake.
2. This same refrigerator will sit with an ambient temperature 42 degrees on it’s lowest setting.  If I wrap the better bottle with a towel the water will remain at about 45 degrees.
3. I love bocks.  I can brew some nice lagers at this temperature and not tie up my primary fermentation chamber for extra time when I want to brew lagers.
4. Small batch brewing allows me to experiment without having too much extra beer if it’s a failure.
5. Smaller batches are cheaper.
6. I can brew small batches on the kitchen stove.   The wife hates this but I can work with that.
7. I intend on bottling most of these small batches rather than kegging.  I’m targeting competition brewing and big beer brewing with this system.

The great thing is most of my original brewing system comes in to play including some of the smaller gear I purchased before I built my current keggle system.   About $125 to construct the new parts although I’m sure it could be done for $75 by a more handy brewer than myself.

1. 5 gallon kettle
2. Wife’s 3.5 gallon stock pot which conveniently holds the small copper wort chiller I purchased with my first system but later upgraded to a larger one.
3. before mentioned small copper wort chiller with about a 9″ diameter.
4. Purchased a 5 gallon Igloo cooler and the parts to build another bulkhead & manifold.    This was the most expensive part of this scheme costing me about $75.
5. A pair of 3 gallon better bottles that fit perfectly side by side in my small freezer.   The size of these better bottles are 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 19.3″.   These things are perfect for this or for a 5 gallon brewer who wants to split the batch in to two bottles for space economy.  $21 a piece.

At this point I have to pick up a couple of parts from the hardware store to finish this deal but it’s going to be great.   Already have some bock and maibock planned out for the first run!